Kim Cattrall only agreed to star in new play Sweet Bird Of Youth after Kevin Spacey honoured her request to sign up her favourite theatre director.

The Sex and the City star will tread the boards at the Old Vic in London this summer (13) but revealed she only agreed to take on the role of fading Hollywood legend Alexandra Del Lago if Spacey, who is the theatre's artistic director, hired acclaimed War Horse director Marianne Elliott.

Kim said, "I was doing Private Lives (play) in the West End about two years ago and Kevin Spacey came to see it and he took me for lunch a few days later and said 'I have an idea'... he said 'Sweet Bird Of Youth'. And I said, Alright, if you can get Marianne Elliott to direct it I'll do it - and he did!"